After a ten-hour flight, I arrived at the David Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv where I met my rabbinic colleagues and drove with them to a fruit orchard in the village of Kfar Chabad, where we volunteered for three and a half hours picking clementines. As we introduced ourselves and held introductory conversations, we clipped tiny orange fruits and loaded them into a large container which will later be brought to an area factory for cleaning and distribution
We volunteered because Israel’s farms are desperate for workers. The Thai laborers who have long worked on these farms fled the country after October 7th. Palestinian laborers have still not returned. Many of Israel’s farms now lie fallow with crops destroyed. One of the many repercussions of Hamas’ invasion and the ensuing war in Gaza is this loss of labor – which we and other volunteers have sought to somehow stop-gap.
After finishing our work, we drove the hour-long trek to Jerusalem. The road to Jerusalem is historic. It was this road that was blocked during the War of Independence, this road that Israel fought to protect and to open in order to win the first half of the war. The road slowly meanders uphill – reminding travelers that Jerusalem is above – one is literally uplifted as they ascend to the city. As we entered Jerusalem this afternoon, I felt an instant sense of homecoming.
We arrived at the hotel, and instead of going to my room, I decided to take a walk. I walked down Shalom Aleichem, took a left on Keren Ha-Yesod past the Dan Panorama Hotel, past the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical School and then onto Ramban street where I arrived at number 11. This was the apartment where Shara and I lived in 2005 alongside our newborn son Kaleb while I was in my fourth year of rabbinical school.
I remember being here in August of 2005 and seeing banners on apartment buildings with messages attacking then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. One month earlier, Sharon had completed a withdrawal from Gaza. He had argued that in order to have real security, Israel needed to ‘disengage’ from the Gaza Strip. During that year, there was talk of doing the very same thing in the West Bank. Disengagement seemed the sequel to the failure of Oslo and Camp David. Today, as I walk down this same street where those banners attacking Sharon once hung, I now see posters demanding that our hostages come home. Sharon’s plan backfired — it gave a sanctuary to Hamas.
At night, we sit down for a private get together with Dr. Micah Goodman, research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Micah speaks to us about his new book, which chronicles the war in Gaza and the reality of what he terms the ‘hyrbrid Israeli’. He tells us that we have reason to hope because Israelis have come together and acted like heroes during this war. They have demonstrated that they care deeply about one another and about the future of their nation. Micah sees this hybrid Israeli as a new factor in Israel’s politics. He feels that the war has woken up a majority of Israelis who want to take their country back.
Tomorrow, we are waking up at 6AM to head out to the Gaza border and to visit with families who lost loved ones on October 7th. We will see the site of the Nova concert, will visit Kibbutz Azza and will spend time with a family that adopted children who lost their parents. It is not going to be an easy day, but I know it will be important. We are not going on a disaster tourist trip — we are going to meet with people and to hear their stories — we are going to understand better what October 7th means to Israelis.
What I have learned so far is this fact — Israelis feel threatened – they feel as though their very survival is on the line. They are traumatized and they are most definitely wearing their pain. I see the fear on their faces.
But I also see a unique determination in their hearts.
I’ll write more tomorrow.
Where are the other rabbis from that are with you? Are they writing similar messages to their congregations? It feels important that you’re sharing this daily message with us. Wondering what the other rabbis’ take away messages are.